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Environmental News Service

RUSSIA, 10 April 2002 -- Moves by Russia to import nuclear waste from the United Kingdom and United States were clarified in the first meeting of environmentalists with the chief of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) Alexander Rumyantsev since he assumed the post last year.

At a meeting late Tuesday, Rumyantsev told the group of seven Russian anti-nuclear environmentalists that the British nuclear industry wants to dump its radioactive waste in Russia.

A plan sponsored by Minatom to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia was approved by both the Russian parliament and President Vladimir Putin in 2001, changing Russian law to permit such imports.

Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman for Russian environmental group Ecodefense, who participated in the meeting with Rumyantsev, said the minister "repeatedly insisted that there is the spent fuel reprocessing market across the world where Britain and France are main competitors to Russia."

Slivyak said, "Now it appears that British industry wants to dump its nuclear waste in Russia because reprocessing is no more economically profitable."

"Import of nuclear waste is crime against the environment and future generations. Britain should not dump its radioactive garbage on Russia," said Slivyak.

Rumyantsev, a nuclear physicist, told the activists that next year a contract to import spent nuclear fuel from British research reactors will be signed, although he refused to say how much nuclear fuel would be imported and at what price.

The spent fuel will be stored at Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, Siberia and processed at the Mayak Chemical Combine near Chelyabinsk.

To make the imports feasible, the storage capacity at the Krasnoyarsk will have to be increased five-fold to 30,000 tons Rumyantsev said last July. A dry storage facility is being designed, and construction is expected to cost $300 to 450 million, which will come from the initial payments for the imports.

Commenting on the prospect of importing spent fuel from foreign civil reactors, Rumyantsev said he sees "no opportunities for any contracts to be signed in the next few years."

The minister explained that the United States controls over 80 percent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and his ministry is working to get American permission for Russia to import this waste.

Rumyantsev said after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Minatom representatives repeatedly asked U.S. officials to offer Minatom the possibility of earning enough funds to improve physical protection of nuclear facilities in Russia. Such funds could be obtained through nuclear waste import, the minister said.

On the issue of the possible import of low-level radioactive waste into Russia, and on disposal of Asian radioactive waste in Russian Far East, the minister said, "There is great economic profit Russia may get, but I can't call for this because Russian law prohibits such import."

On March 27, Ecodefense made public documents confirming that Russian nuclear industry and politicians are involved in a secret deal with Taiwan, aimed at importing radioactive waste and dumping it on Simushir island in the Russian Far East.

Several Russian media reports pointed to Rumyantsev as the main supporter of the Simushir project.

In his meeting with the activists, Rumyantsev refused to comment on whether or not his ministry would lobby to change Russian legislation in order to allow the import of low-level radioactive waste from Asia.